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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26500432">sunset and vine</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sumaru/pseuds/sumaru'>sumaru</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Olympics, Post-Canon, Social Media</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 08:20:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,262</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26500432</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sumaru/pseuds/sumaru</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p></p><blockquote>
  <p>"Did you hear about the starting setter for Team Japan?” </p>
  <p>“Yukiko-san’s brother is an assistant coach and she said the setter was really h—” </p>
  <p><i>Hard-working</i>, yes, Tobio was always hard-working, nobody can deny him that, and <i>honest</i>, stupidly so, can you believe the nerve of telling the always flawless Oikawa-san that his shorts were ugly, and, yes, yes, yes, Tobio was always <i>heedful</i>, and sometimes even <i>helpful</i>, but Tobio was totally, utterly, completely, absolutely not h—</p>
</blockquote><br/>Trending topic on Twitter for August 19, 2026: Kageyama Tobio Is #Hot<br/><br/>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kageyama Tobio/Oikawa Tooru</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>253</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>sunset and vine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for #HQSwiftWeek2020.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>So, it all starts with something like this:</p><p>Oikawa needs a drink.</p><p>This corner of Sunset and Vine used to be a corner store. The barista had informed him of this much too cheerfully as she had handed him his order — a new limited time frappuccino dusted liberally with gold sprinkles. This is very much not the drink he needs right now, but everything is so radically sunny in this little corner of Los Angeles that is now a Starbucks, where a poster of Tobio’s face is plastered right there in the window holding the same drink and smiling gently in his impeccable Adidas-sponsored athleisure, like he’s some sort of benevolent frappuccino deity. Volleyball deity. Combination frappuccino and volleyball deity.</p><p>“So, can you tell us more about Tobio? What <em>is</em> the story there? Ever since that series of selfies with Team Japan’s Shouyou Hinata popped up on Insta, we’ve been dying to know more!”</p><p>What?</p><p>Wait, the interview.</p><p>But poster Tobio still continues smiling. They absolutely edited his eyes because there’s no way they’re that blue. They’re glowing. <em>He’s</em> glowing. It’s disgusting. </p><p>Oikawa did this to himself. </p><p>His drink twinkles threateningly at him and he swallows. The smile he gifts the R29 editor on his phone screen has only the smallest hint of teeth.</p><p>“Kageyama. In Japan, first names are special! Usually only for family, or husband and wife.”</p><p>“Oh! I am so sorry. Are you and— ah, Kageyama— are you partners?”</p><p>Ugh. </p><p>How to say limpet in English? Was there even a polite way to say there’s no way you can shake Tobio off your tail once he’s latched onto you? Were they even friends? Could he truthfully say that he, Oikawa Tooru, had some form of relationship with Kageyama Tobio? Have touched the same volleyball at multiple points in their intwined lives? Work friends? Occasional selfie rivals? </p><p>Oikawa plasters his most charming smile in place this time. He’s competing with the giant Tobio face hanging over his head smiling like it’s <em>natural,</em> like he’s some kind of <em>model</em>, and it’s infuriating, <em>infuriating</em>, but Oikawa lets the straw in his drink pull coyly at his bottom lip anyway. </p><p>“Of course! Partners.”</p><p>Partners.</p><p>English is a stupid, stupid language.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>*</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>If he was honest with himself, it had been the way the R29 editor had said Tobio’s name so casually. Like she <em>knew</em> him. And usually he’s better at interviews, even English ones, even the ones on Instagram LIVE where his reading skills are not quite good enough to catch all the questions being rapid fire asked by his fans from all over the world. But he definitely, definitely understands the lighting fast blocks of capital letters and very creative assortment of heart emoji scrolling past.</p><p>His stomach flips. Just doesn’t stop flipping, actually.</p><p>The R29 editor simply beams at him. The story is practically writing itself for her. “You must be very proud of him.”</p><p>Oikawa is not stupid. He knows he has a microsecond window to laugh it off as a language slip, a miscommunication, <em>Oh! Silly me, I thought you meant when I played with him in middle school, of course! Of course! Only an idiot like him will cling to the ideal of someone he met over a decade ago, though of course I don’t blame him, I am, afterall, quite ideal.</em> But Tobio’s face is just <em>hanging </em>there, big and glowing and smiling gently and absolutely nothing like Tobio’s stupid scowling face that hasn’t changed one bit in real life <em>at all</em>, it’s so stupid, everything is so stupid, he’s only sitting here because the entire world had suddenly realised that Tobio was stupidly, ridiculously h—</p><p>“I am very proud of my Tobio, yes. We may be on different sides of the world, but I know very well how much he has grown.”</p><p>Oikawa winks and flashes a victory sign at the phone camera. The R29 editor signs off and the comments stop their rapid scrolling on one final, damning one:</p><p><em>IS UR HOT BOYFRIEND THERE WITH YOU???? </em>😍💕</p><p>Oikawa suddenly can’t read. </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>*</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Did you hear about the starting setter for Team Japan?”</p><p>“The one that’s the new youth ambassador for the Olympics?”</p><p>“Yukiko-san’s brother is an assistant coach and she said the setter was really h—”</p><p><em>Hard-working</em>, yes, Tobio was always hard-working, nobody can deny him that, and <em>honest</em>, stupidly so, can you believe the nerve of telling the always flawless Oikawa-san that his shorts were ugly, and, yes, yes, yes, Tobio was always <em>heedful</em>, and sometimes even <em>helpful</em>, but Tobio was totally, utterly, completely, absolutely not h—</p><p>Trending topic on Twitter for August 23, 2026: Kageyama Tobio Is #Hot</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>*</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>So, it all <em>actually </em>starts with something like this:</p><p>Being in Argentina keeps him busy. Really busy and it’s good, you know? Oikawa is where he wants to be. It’s blisteringly hot in a way that Tokyo never was but the change was exactly what he needed to grow. </p><p>A different direction, under what feels like an entirely new sun. </p><p>The other side of the world means it’s a bit harder to call up his sister and his nephew, who is growing like a tough little weed sprouting from concrete — a phrase he picked up from Shouyou, actually, and he wants to tell his nephew about some exceedingly cool moves only the coolest setter in the world could pull off on the shining sand of the beaches here. And yet, while time may be a social construct and thus, meaningless, and therefore can be ignored: timezones are decidedly not. </p><p>It does mean being able to text Iwa-chan in the middle of the day with the photo of an ugly fish with large flapping fins he found that reminded him of Tobio so, whatever. Win some, lose some.</p><p>Kageyama Tobio. It’s been years. Oikawa had lived through his first Olympics hard and fast and still emerged intact enough to tell the tale, and every day it gets a little easier to ignore the shadows that used to trail after him. It feels like the sun sets so late and rises so early here, everything painted in a glow so golden, it’s like there’s never been someone else’s shadow defining the shape of his own at all.</p><p>So it’s just this: Oikawa doesn’t expect to lose very much these days.</p><p>The next Olympics are still two years out and everybody is trying to find their footing in this brave new world, so naturally, quite naturally, for someone who is the ideal and very cool embodiment of an internationally renowned setter and trending more or less continuously on various key Instagram and Twitter tags for hot people, they board him onto a plane to Los Angeles for some Adidas-sponsored ambassadorship to the Olympics that’ll get people hyped again for the highs and lows of competitive volleyball. He thinks he’ll be able to figure out a way to kidnap Iwa-chan just a little bit from the very important, but decidedly, non-Oikawa Tooru work he does for the Olympics Committee, but, instead:</p><p><em>Instead</em>, it’s like coming back home all over again. But worse, in the way that his nightmares haven’t been since high school. Because there is Tobio’s face just <em>everywhere</em>. </p><p>“Explain this!” Oikawa’s voice is not shrill. He is in complete command of the situation. “Explain this to me right now!”</p><p>“How is this any different than when he did that curry commercial that they couldn’t stop playing for at least two months?”</p><p>Iwa-chan isn’t even looking at him. His eyes keep flitting to his phone or to the people stepping around Oikawa as he points to the Starbucks across the street. A lady in a baseball cap scowls and ducks under Oikawa’s hand and Iwa-chan almost bows to her in apology before stopping himself. Rude. Iwa-chan should be bowing to him for the crime of keeping secrets.</p><p>“Wrong, Iwa-chan!” He pushes Iwa-chan toward the Starbucks. He’s not doing this alone. He will not be abandoned to a fate worse than death. “Try again! I don’t care about Tobio-chan’s stupid curry commercial where he eats the stupid curry with his stupid mouth, I care that he got a <em>Starbucks </em>sponsorship before I did! Does he even drink Starbucks? Is he even mature enough to drink something that isn’t a juice box?”</p><p>“How is it even possible for you to regress ten years so quickly?” Iwa-chan’s phone chimes and he starts to turn away. “Anyway, you’re on your own, I told you I had another appointment.”</p><p>“It’s the secret to my eternal youth!”</p><p>“Then shouldn’t you be thanking Kageyama?” </p><p>
  <em>Rude.</em>
</p><p>So, that’s where Oikawa finds himself. Making the same mistakes again. Looking up into Tobio’s giant, naturally blue-eyed, frappucino drinking face. Talking to a magazine editor who got cornered by the nightmare of Los Angeles traffic about the things he loves — how home can feel so incredibly small until you leave it, how even the entire world can be made to feel small because of what you’ve always carried with you.</p><p>How sometimes if you step into all that bright, new daylight, you can finally let it all go.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>*</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Oikawa sleeps off the interview like a bad mistake. Puts it out of his mind over the decidedly very nice hotel breakfast like a hazy nightmare until his schedule chimes in with his itinerary — ah, yes. There is it. The actual fate worse than death, to be met in mortal combat in a sunny little studio somewhere in the highway maze that is Los Angeles.</p><p>He hasn’t seen Tobio in person since the last Olympics where they, well. You know how that went.</p><p>“Do you even <em>like</em> coffee?”</p><p>“Hello, Oikawa-san. It’s been a long time.” Tobio looks up, the bundle of cue cards in his hands crumpling a little under the strength of his grip. Show-off. “You look good.”</p><p>“Answer my question or the deal is off! If you want Oikawa-san’s help getting through this photoshoot, you’ll need more than— are you studying?” Tobio’s eyes snap onto him. They <em>are</em> that blue. What the fuck. Oikawa’s entire soul bristles. “<em>You</em> don’t look good, but some things just can’t be helped, I suppose.”</p><p>Tobio smirks. Wardrobe had kept it simple for him, just black shorts and a soft-looking black t-shirt, simple Adidas stripes in royal blue — very stripped down, very jock, an outfit that should have made Tobio look like some dumb brainless beast but instead, he just looks fresh and alert and impossibly strong. Those healthy arms. Italian sun probably giving him that stupid tan. It’s downright offensive, right down to that smug little smile to match his stupid glossy smug hair. Wow, everybody and everything really is rude these days.</p><p>“There’s no coffee in a fra—” Tobio scowls down at his hands. Another cue card wrinkles. There it is. Oikawa waits for it. “A <em>frappucino</em>.”</p><p>The word rolls off Tobio’s tongue like it belongs there. Smooth and sweet with no hint of bitterness at all and somehow, somehow, that’s what catches in Oikawa’s throat and can’t be swallowed down.</p><p>“What have they done to my Tobio-chan?” He’s <em>definitely </em>in complete command of the situation. He’s the one that wardrobe dressed in the Stella McCartney designer collab outfit afterall which means <em>he</em> is the person with authority here, at least until the art director finally shows up and they can all go about doing the job they were supposed to be here for, and not wasting time with things like Tobio’s stupid <em>eyes </em>and Tobio’s stupid <em>arms</em>. “Did they replace you with an alien when you left Japan?”</p><p>That impossible gaze again. Just full of midnight, drowning deep, no sun at all. “You left Japan to learn new things. So did I. I won’t be left behind, Oikawa-san.” Tobio shifts suddenly, as if uncomfortable. His eyes flit to over Oikawa’s shoulder. A scowl darkens that brow again. “But your English is bad, so I don’t think you can help me today.”</p><p>Tobio has the <em>audacity</em> to go pink right up to his ears. Oikawa huffs. “Listen, Italian Cue Card Genius-chan, I don’t need—”</p><p>Partners. <em>Partners</em>.</p><p>The drop in his stomach feels like from a thousand feet up in the air. He freezes. “What did you see? What did you read? Can you even read? Nothing is real on social media, Tobio-chan, you can’t believe everything they say!”</p><p>“My coach messaged me today and congratulated me.” Tobio flushes even darker. “On becoming a man.”</p><p>“What does that even mean?” </p><p>“There was a lot of Italian I didn’t understand. But he said it would be good for my volleyball. I understood that part.” Tobio is so bright red in the face now, Oikawa thinks he’s about to pass out. Would he have to gently lift Tobio from the floor and cradle his nice arms and his big shoulders and his glossy hair until help arrived? Oikawa thinks, faintly, that he might be hysterical.</p><p>“I think I said yes.”</p><p>“What does that mean?” Okay, he’s definitely shrill now. “What does that <em>mean</em>, Tobio?”</p><p>“Sorry to keep you two waiting!” The door smashes open, the art director is wearing a very bright citron jumpsuit, and she is not even sorry a little bit at all. “Now that Japan is onboard with this whole partnership thing, and I love that, by the way! Partners! Can you believe we had a ambassadorship campaign for this entire concept already but when Tobio’s— oh sorry, Kageyama’s coach told us, it felt like destiny?”</p><p>Tobio scowls. In Italian, “I just wanted to play volleyball.”</p><p>“Sorry, I don’t speak English,” Oikawa wheezes, in English.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>
  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUoe7cf0HYw">You should think about the consequence of your magnetic field being a little too strong.</a>
</p><p>We're all living in a post-timeskip world now.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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